Greenwich Village has a longstanding reputation as one of New York City’s hotbeds of artistic activity, with a great many famous painters, writers, and musicians having at one time or another called the neighborhood home. Their far-reaching legacies resonate in the area to this day—sometimes in spookier ways than others! Those visitors to New York interested in learning more about the supernatural side of the city will want to go on Top Dog Tours’ Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour. This two-hour-long guided walking tour showcases ghost stories, haunted sites, and more throughout one of New York City’s quintessential neighborhoods.
Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour Background Information
Top Dog Tours’ Ghosts of Greenwich Village The walking tour meets every day of the week at 8:00pm. A Spanish-language version of the Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour is available every Friday night at 7:00pm. Many visitors choose to make use of an attraction pass when booking their spot on the Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour. If you plan to do the same thing, keep in mind that you’ll have to share your credit card information to make a reservation. You won’t be charged anything additional, though, given you arrive for your tour on time.
What You See on the Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour
The Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour begins on the corner of 6th Avenue and Waverly Place, right in front of the Waverly Diner. From there it’s a short walk to the tour’s true starting point, the Anne Charlotte Lynch House—or Poe House, as it’s alternatively known. Lynch’s home was an influential nineteenth-century literary salon frequented by legendary writers like Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, Margaret Fuller, and Edgar Allen Poe, just to name a few. It’s been said that Poe, in particular, still haunts the area today.
Washington Square Park is next, where you’ll see what is believed to be New York City’s oldest standing tree, the Hanging Tree, and learn that long before it became a popular gathering place, Washington Square Park was a potter’s field, meaning it was where poor individuals and unclaimed corpses were buried. With the remains of that many dead people found below the surface here, it’s said that many different ghosts haunt the popular public green space.
Near Washington Square Park is the infamous Asch Building. While the ten-story structure is today called the Brown Building (and is part of the New York University campus), the site is best known as the location of the horrid Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Terrible conditions in this appalling sweatshop led to nearly 150 people dying in the fire or by jumping to their death in the 1911 disaster. This tragic spot makes for an especially intense stop along this spooky tour.
The remainder of your Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour will keep the haunted hits coming. Highlights along the way include the House of Death, a brownstone at 14 West 10th Street where Mark Twain once lived and is said to still haunt; the Jefferson Market Library, where numerous sordid and violent court cases took place during the early twentieth century; Marie’s Crisis Café, which has been a piano bar since 1929, but was the site where the revolutionary writer Thomas Paine died in 1809; and the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City’s oldest continually running off-Broadway venue. Not only have iconic playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Seán O’Casey, Eugene O’Neill, and Lorraine Hansberry staged works here, but the theatre is believed to be haunted.
Tips for Taking the Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour
- Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour is included on several money saving tourist passes including the New York Pass, Go NY All-Inclusive Pass and NY Explorer Pass
- You may make changes to your Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour reservation at any time up to two full calendar days before your tour’s scheduled departure. If you want to alter or cancel your reservation after that point, you’ll be charged a $20-per-person rescheduling fee.
- Be advised that if you cancel your Ghosts of Greenwich Village reservation after already having rescheduled it once, you will not be granted any kind of refund.
- The Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour goes forward rain or shine. The only time your Top Dog Tours experience will be canceled on account of weather is if conditions are so extreme that New York City issues a statement declaring it unsafe to be outside. As a result, you’ll want to take the time ahead of your tour to check the forecast and prepare accordingly.
- When meeting your guide at the tour departure point, look for an individual waving a white flag with blue checks and the Top Dog Tours logo. Your Ghosts of Greenwich Village Tour will embark promptly as scheduled, so make sure and be punctual. If you arrive late, Top Dog Tours doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to catchup with your group.